Wizardry, Magic and Lies
by Dagron
Summary: Wizards, magic, wizardry... Masumi Sera, despite her logic driven upbringing, secretly yearns for magic. She doesn't just want to experience it though. She wants to live it, embody it... And then she finds Ran Mouri.
1. WIZARDY

**WIZARDY**

* * *

Wizards, magic, wizardry...

Masumi, despite her logic driven upbringing, secretly yearns for magic. She doesn't just want to experience it though. She wants to live it, embody it... Ever since she was a young girl, since that one incident that has shaped her life since, she has spurned the entertainers in search of a magic so deep and true, it can only come from science.

It is why she chose to become a detective. Sure, fighting bad guys is a bonus, but it is so easy to forget that villains are people too, too easy to slip into the skin of one oneself. Being a detective is about treading the thin line between truth and deceit, between shining a light and blinding... And deceit is such a useful tool for a detective. As a girl, to be taken seriously, she finds it best to dress boyishly. Being of frail thin appearance as a result, she uses that to her advantage, her training in Jeet Kune Do a surprising string in her bow when it comes to facing bullies and desperadoes. She swims in lies, in her search of truth, that magical truth... Even her smile hides her tears, her frustrations.

And then she meets her.

The woman who makes her realise that there is more to the magic she seeks than the mechanical unveiling of truth. She is the one who shows her that for every revelation, there is a mystery born anew.

Ran Mouri is the girl who waits, despite knowing it to be futile. Masumi can tell, can see the same tears hiding in the girl's eyes, but there's something different in her smile.

Ran Mouri is the girl who doesn't need to put on a show of being strong, because she's not, really not... Not unless it matters, and then beware the one on her warpath. Masumi still remembers her punches, her kicks from their first encounter. She remembers the way her leg didn't pause because of her skirt, the confidence with which she stood up for her friend.

Masumi Sera admires her for that. The America-proven detective teen envies Ran her ability not to let her being born a lamb stop her from being a lion. She envies the way her heart is on her sleeve, while still hiding the depths of her soul, her thoughts.

She envies Ran for her honesty, while she hides in lies, her name confusing, her face a mask, her motives unclear.

If only she wasn't waiting for the wizard to make his impossible return.

"Hey..." Sera whispers; her words are but a breath in the dark between her and the longer haired teen.

Ran Mouri stills. Apparently she hadn't noticed her there. The girl turns, her eyes damp with fear, fret and worry.

"Sera-san?"

Masumi still finds it adorable how awkward Ran can be towards her.

"Hey, it's okay. Your father and Conan are away to figure out who killed the lights." The jean clad detective kneels down beside her friend. "Meanwhile we're just to stay put and safe. The killer's still bound to be around after all."

"You..." Masumi can barely make out the tremor of Ran's lip in the light from the wristwatch the young Edogawa had left her with. The long haired girl turns hesitantly towards Masumi, a shuddering breath escaping as she tries to calm her frayed nerves. "You have an idea who it is, don't you?"

Masumi Sera remains quiet, a habit born from too many years playing her cards close to her unfortunately flat chest. After a long, drawn out moment in which Ran's gaze remains steadily glued to her eyes, Masumi nods.

"I do." And before she can think, she's gripping Ran's shoulder, her forehead finding its way to hers. "And I won't let them anywhere near you."

And it is magic, wizardry happening all over again, because suddenly Masumi's mask has dropped, and there's a striking earnestness in her voice, in her eyes as she gazes into Ran's dark orbs. She feels the close warmth of the young woman before her. She smells the scent that she's started to associate with those thoughts she tries to keep buried but always fails. Her arms shake, but it is not for the fear of some sick killer.

"Good." And Ran smiles, her face suddenly a complete mystery as Masumi finds herself in the girl's arms.

Screw hiding her feelings. Masumi is entranced, terrified and elated.

"Sorry, wizard," she thinks, unsure if the thoughts find themselves voiced in a murmur or not. She finds she doesn't care. If Ran is a lamb with the heart of a lion, then, Masumi decides, Sera shall be the wolf in the guise of a mouse.

Shyly, she places a chaste kiss on Ran's brow, before leaning back the better to admire her features. The gesture had been calculated, deliberate and devious yet... As she sees the blush suddenly spreading across Ran's cheeks, the understanding beginning to dawn in her eyes, Masumi Sera finds herself smiling in earnest.

"I love you." And it's the most impulsive thing she's ever said.

* * *

_Part 1 of 3:_ _To be continued..._


	2. MAGIC

(By the way, this story is dedicated to Aritzen. If you haven't read her wonderful story "Red and Black" and are a fan of Masumi Sera, do go give it a read!)

* * *

**MAGIC**

* * *

"I love you."

The words had been simple, straight forward and clear. They had also struck her with something unidentifiable, something she could not name, right in the heart. It was hard to understand, let alone explain.

Part of her had been glad for the distraction when the lights had suddenly turned back on, blinding them with their unexpected brightness. Ran was dazzled, stunned, and she wasn't sure what by most. The fact that suddenly the manor they'd been visiting was awash with shouts as a chase for the culprit began had certainly brought the moment to an end.

Yet the moment has stuck with her since. Even now, as she sits in class pondering, her cheeks warm as she relives the startling emotions, she can't help but to wonder and compare.

Similar words had been said to her before. An admission of love had been imparted to her, drawn out from lips desperate to stop her tears, a face too proud to put things simply.

Back then she had felt unable to reply, merely delighting in the fact that she had drawn the admission out of him and that he cared... She had avoided the topic with him since, unsure as to why. She had thought it spite, partly. He'd left without a word, leaving her behind to worry herself sick. She knew him well enough by the time of his admission to know that he was not coming back to her yet, that he was still going to leave within the day. There was no way she could answer his feelings when he wasn't ready to stay, to do her feelings justice.

And now that she thinks about it, she still is unsure what her feelings for him are.

Her feelings for Masumi Sera on the other hand...

Ran knows full well what her feelings for the female detective are, even if she isn't quite ready to admit to them, not yet. Turning her head slightly towards the back of the classroom, she spies the tomboy, leaning on her hand, looking bored. The short haired girl looks odd in her school uniform, but not necessarily unpleasantly so. Ran turns swiftly back to the window, twirling a pen in a vain attempt to reignite her interest in the exercises their teacher had given them. It's no use. She can't deny it. She's picturing Sera-san's legs, crossed, one bouncing slightly as the skirt does very little to hide the toned calves. She's imagining her uninterested expression suddenly turning to one of pleasant surprise as in her mind Ran strokes her bared skin, her eyes connecting warmly with green ones.

And that is the crux of it. As much as Ran has been telling herself for the past year that she is in love with Shinichi Kudo she...

She never pictured herself with him; she never truly imagined what it would be like to kiss him, to be held in his arms. Sure, there had been notions, expectations... But invariably her more lurid imaginations of her male friend had always involved another woman, had always been of him cheating, looking elsewhere. She just couldn't bring herself to picture the two of them together as lovers, as much as she wished to.

Masumi Sera on the other hand has been haunting her dreams since that night her lips had left their mark on her forehead.

Being so focused on the thoughts in her own head, Ran never notices the bell ringing, or the teacher giving out homework. It isn't until a hand gently grabs her shoulder that she starts, familiar eyes leaning down to find hers.

"Hey," says Sonoko, her bleached bob swaying as her brow creases in concern. "Have you and Sera-chan had a fight?"

A memory floats to mind, that of a young girl with a snag tooth and cute girly swimsuit at the beach, pumping her arm in the air as she voices some unheard challenge. Ran shakes her head. That memory is the very reason she finds it hard to call her latest classmate and friend by so cutesy a moniker. Masumi Sera, though similar in every way to the child of the memory, is too... Is too...

"No..." Ran shakes her head, puzzled by her best friend's question as she finally processes it. "Why would you think that?"

"You keep sighing and glancing her way, yet you've barely said a word to her all week." Seating herself upon the young Mouri's desk, Sonoko crosses her arms emphatically, a teasing glint in her eye. "If Sera-chan weren't a girl, I'd say you were harbouring a crush."

"I-I..." Startled Ran stands up and catches a strand of hair in her mouth as she splutters. This is too much, too close to home coming from the girl who upon first meeting Sera-san thought she'd been the man who'd groped her butt. "Sonoko!"

The second Suzuki daughter merely laughs as Ran grabs her textbook and bag, leaving the room her face red as a tomato. She has an elective class to attend, but her mind is elsewhere. She just can't bring herself to care about literature just now.

She bumps her head hopelessly against a windowpane in the corridor. Ran hopes the cool glass will help the heat in her face fade. She ignores some taunting from a classmate, some knucklehead who has yet to figure out his chin fuzz makes him look like a parrot. It occurs to her that she didn't see Sera in the classroom as she left. Normally those who didn't have electives to attend stayed back for a guided study session. Ran knew from prior discussion that none of the electives Teitan high school had to offer held any appeal for the young transfer student.

Her mood despondent at the unexplained absence of the person Sonoko had just described as her crush; Ran's eyes darkly scan the courtyard outside. She's mad, furious and raw. At what, she's not sure: Herself maybe, the world? She's scared, because all she wants is for the person haunting her thoughts to shield her from all this uncertainty and that's the problem. She feels like she shouldn't, and she finds that she can't care about what she should and shouldn't feel.

A dark bob of messy locks catches her eye. Her breath catches too. There she is. Masumi Sera is standing by the lockers, her ear glued to her phone as her expression darkens with an angry frown.

Masumi is too dark, mysterious and darn well hot to be ever referred to as Sera-chan.

Ran breathes in sharply merely thinking of the other girl by her first name. Her mind, however, is made up. As she spots "_Masumi"_ grabbing her things from her locker with a look of sheer urgency in the way her arms fly, her legs pump and her back arches, Ran knows that she needs to go after her.

She needs to face her. She needs to find out.  
The girl has put a spell on her and Ran finds that its magic is something that she can't do without.

* * *

_To be continued..._


	3. LIES

**LIES**

* * *

Everyone lies.

It is lying to imply that this is not the case. I should know better than anyone. I just need to look into a mirror to see my lies: a face too young, eyes too dark, skin too pale. I suspect I am not the only one whose lies stare back at them whenever they look at their reflection. Masumi keeps telling me of this wizard, this boy who looks even younger than I do...

He is one of the greatest fools of all.

I sit, coughing and wheezing in the back of a car. My hands are uncomfortably bound, the rope too tight, at an angle that is uncomfortable. I don't need to see him to know that this is his fault. He might not have stolen me away from my hideout, or threatened me inelegantly with a gun, but his blundering most certainly did. There's no other way they could have found me. There's no other way my Masumi would have allowed this.

"Don't move."

Thinking of the girl, there she is. As always too hot headed, too rash and yet... I push myself up to peer through the car window. I feel pride upon seeing her. She's been caught, a man in black holding a gun to her head, but she doesn't flinch.

Some people are terrible liars.

My Masumi is too honest.

"Let. Her. Go." The words are bitten out, harsh and fierce and raw. The lies she so scrupulously maintains, her façade, it all crumbles. The poised, humorous expression she likes to keep, even when facing serial murderers and mafia big shots is gone. Her eyes glint with the harshness of steel, her mouth a thin line of determination and fury.

This is why I trust her and her alone. She is strong. She is ruthless. More importantly, Masumi Sera is good.

Some lies are told to protect people other than oneself.

The man scoffs, distracted by her schoolgirl attire, thinking her command mere bravado. What a gullible fool. Within seconds he learns that a tailored skirt and blazer do not necessarily mean weak, that a gun and bulk don't equate strength.

I wince at the audible crack as he hits the ground.

As the girl makes her way towards the car, towards me, I hear shouts and bangs coming from behind. I glance back, trying to make out what is going on. I don't see who the other men in black are shooting at, but I do hear a shot being fired from somewhere close by, too close. I whip my head back round with horrified haste. I hear Masumi cry out. It is a sharp, high note, ending quickly as she in turn hits the tarmac. The sound echoes loudly. I forget myself. Something raw and primal takes over. Ice slithers in my veins as my wrists pull at their bindings. My back arches as I try to push at the door, unthinking, screams tearing through my throat as I see her blazer staining with a dark wine colour. A red haze is encroaching upon my vision. I can feel my shoulder bruising as I bodily batter the door. I am too small, too weak... My lungs, my throat protest at their harsh treatment. My scream is interrupted with a bark, a sting. I cough. I cough again. I cough and cough until I can't breathe. I'm blinded and crumple onto the car floor.

My baby girl is out there, bleeding, and there's nothing I can do.

The truth hurts.

I barely notice the car door opening before everything fades to black. My eyelids close on the blurred vision of a bespectacled fool. My ears buzz from the absence of a certain voice. There's a sick taste at the back of my tongue that follows me into the dreamless void of unconsciousness.

Masumi...

* * *

Masumi is there when I first regain consciousness. She lays across from me, buckled into a stretcher as a paramedic checks her vitals. Someone is sat between us, long dark locks obscuring their face. For a moment I believe it to be her brother, before I remember what happened, what brought us here.

"You're going to be alright, Masumi..." Some part of my mind still expects that person's voice to be deep and masculine, with a hint of that sad resignation Shuichi had been suffering from when we'd last met. Instead it is high and hopeful and deeply worried and I realize with a start that those shoulders are way too slim to be that of any boy, yet the way this person is holding onto Masumi's hand... This woman is clearly lying to give herself hope, and yet...

As she does, I too hope those words will be truth. I want my girl to be fine. I want everything to be... alright...

I glance at Masumi's face. I read pain in her features... along with another emotion that I cannot describe.

The vehicle jolts a bit over a road bump. I slip into an exhausted sleep. I'm too old for this.

* * *

When I next awake, it is inside a hospital room, a monitor blinking quietly by my side and oxygen mask on my face. Masumi isn't anywhere to be seen, nor is the long haired woman that had been by her side. It takes a moment for my eyes to find the two voices that had drawn me from my slumber. Soft whispers by the half open door, a good three feet lower than my initial expectation. Their voices are too serious for grade-schoolers. Their faces are obscured.

"Is she going to be okay?" A young girl asks. Her shoulders are slumped in her purple anorak, her tea-coloured bob of hair looking somewhat familiar.

"She'll be fine, that Sera girl is a tough cookie." The boy, the one with glasses, just shrugs.

"I didn't mean Sera..." There's something sharp in the girl's voice. Something I recognize and full of pain...

"And what's that supposed to mean?" I know the boy now. It's the one Masumi keeps going on about. He's the Wizard... The Fool...

"I..." The girl is taken aback by the boy's defensiveness. She hesitates, crosses her arms, and glances at him from under her fringe. I sense worry, concern emanating from her posture and tone. "I'm just saying, Mouri seems to be awfully shaken up. She really cares for Miss Sera."

The boy smirks, nods.  
"That's just Ran. She cares. It's what she does."

"Kudo..." She doesn't need to say anymore for her meaning to come through. I don't even know this Kudo brat and his friend and I can tell what she's _not_ saying.

What she's not saying is that she's never seen this Ran Mouri care so deeply before. She's not saying that she's seen how deeply this Ran Mouri cared for "Kudo" in the past, and that this trumps that once by far. She's not saying it because she knows that such a truth hurts...

But sometimes lies hurt even more.

"You're imagining things, Haibara." The bespectacled boy says sternly. He straightens his shoulders and makes for the door. "I'm going to check on things. Keep an eye on the girl in here."

He's gone. The girl tuts and turns towards my bed, eyes turned to the floor. The light catches them. They twinkle wetly.

"Darn it, Kudo, you are too good at fooling yourself..."

I remember now who the girl reminds me of: an old friend, one from a life that is long gone now. She'd always been one hesitant to use the truth, least it be taken from her. Even the way this girl's knuckles whiten as she grips her sleeves is similar.

"...For someone whose motto is that there is only one truth."

Some people are damn good liars.

I get the feeling that this Wizard boy is one of them.

* * *

It seems like an eternity. They say it has just been a day. I no longer require monitoring but have nowhere to go. They keep me sitting in a waiting area as they try to figure out what to do with me, give me condescending advice with regards to my health. They don't even know half of my issues.

I sigh and bear the brunt of it. If it weren't for Masumi's condition, I would already be gone. But I can't leave, not without her. No matter how dangerous it is for me to stay. To leave her behind, it would...

I remember the moment she was shot. I remember how it tore through my soul.

It would kill me.

So I wait and wonder what lies that bespectacled kid is weaving around all these adults. I ask one of the nurses if I can see Masumi, they say that they will see what they can do... As if it requires wizardry to just point me to the right room or tell me outright that it isn't possible. I'm somewhat relieved when they return, give a nod to the police officer watching over me and lead me down some corridors to the patient quarters.

"Your sister's not allowed out of bed without a nurse yet," they say, naturally recognising our family resemblance even though they get the terms wrong. "But she should be fine to talk. We'll give you some time."

The nurse leaves, their heels tap rapidly down the corridor with the sound of well practiced steps. The police officer assigned to me stands at the corner, gives me a smile. I try not to think of all the lies I had to come up with during questioning. The less anyone knows the better...

But this brings me to what I really want to know. Masumi, is she...?

I brace myself as I push open the door, breath catching in my throat. I try not to think back to other times I've had to visit her in hospital, thankfully not all that often: a bout of food poisoning, some sporting injuries... That one damned case.

She looks...

There's a smile on her face as she looks towards the window. She doesn't suit the bland pyjamas that the hospital has provided her with: too tame, too pale. Yet there's peacefulness in her posture, a relaxed state I'm so unused to seeing in her. She's normally coiled tight like a spring but...

She looks pretty good for someone who's been shot.

I smile, tears coming to blur my vision. She only notices my presence when I cough, an involuntary reflex to the breathlessness my relief gives me. She greets me with a quiet hey, a hand with a plaster across the palm waving lazily at me.

"You idiot." I choke out. I want to shout. I wish to berate her, to give her the scolding of a lifetime for scaring me like that. My throat is still raw from the ordeal. I couldn't even if I tried.

Instead I give in to my other urge and run up to her bedside to give her a hug. She looks startled as drop my forehead to her shoulder. I'm not surprised. Affection is something we as a family have always had trouble showing. It takes her a moment to return the hug, hand awkwardly patting at my arms before squeezing.

"I'm okay. You're okay." Masumi smiles as I lift my damp eyes up once more. "That's all that matters."

I let out a deep sigh and stand back up. Wiping my eyes with the heel of my hand, I flick her nose with the other.  
"Don't do it again."

My words are stern, and balance is restored as she grins up sheepishly at me. That is, until Masumi turns her face back to the window.

"Ran," she calls out. I hadn't even noticed that there had been another person in the room. "Come here, there's someone I'd like you to meet."

I recognize her as the lady from the ambulance. Long dark hair, she has an hourglass figure and a face full of tenderness and gentle curiosity as she nears Masumi's bed.

"Hi," she waves her hand and bows her head. "My name's Ran Mouri. It is nice to meet you."

Noticing that I am lost for words and rolling her eyes at what she probably perceives as my usual paranoia, Masumi interjects for me.  
"Ran this here is my mother."

I'm half horrified that Masumi is outing my secret and half impressed. My daughter doesn't look like she's on any mind altering drugs. For her to choose to divulge this information to this Ran Mouri, she must really trust her.

And then I realise why. Ran Mouri takes this information, startling as it should be, with surprising ease. It isn't long before she and Masumi are conversing easily, only requiring minimal input from me. Ran's hand seems to find Masumi's without any conscious thought on either's behalf.

It is at that moment that I realise: you don't need a wizard for magic to happen.

I take my leave, professing tiredness and promising to look into Ran Mouri's offer of staying with her and her father a few days, the time for Masumi to heal enough to be released.

I pause at the door, looking back through the small gap. The two girls, not realising I hadn't quite shut it yet, are leaning into one another. I smile as I watch them hesitantly kiss.

A wizard likes to manipulate the truth, toeing the line with lies.

It takes a special kind of magic to turn lies into truth.

* * *

_FIN._


End file.
